Tag Archives: cave

Gomantong Caves (Gua Gomantong) is the largest cave and the most important source of edible birds’ nest in Sabah. The cave is located in 3,297-Hectares Gomantong Forest Reserve of Kinabatangan district, about 85 KM away from Sandakan city. In fact, Gomantong Caves is a limestone cave system consists of 9 caves, and the two largest caves are Simud Putih (White Cave) and Simud Hitam (Black Cave). You can see the map of cave complexes below:

Gomantong Cave is managed by Sabah Wildlife Department, and Sumid Hitam cave is open for public from 8am to 6pm daily. The entrance fee is RM5 (≈USD1.70) for Malaysian adult and RM30 (≈USD10) for foreign visitor. For visitors who want to explore Sumit Putih cave, they need to get a permit and climb 30 minutes of steep hill to reach there.

For normal tourists, the smaller and more accessible Sumid Hitam cave is a better choice. The wooden boardwalk to this cave will take you less than 10 minutes. You will pass through the dense trees of Gomantong rainforest, and spot orangutan or red-leaf monkey if it’s your lucky day.

We were “escorted” by a group of dogs to the cave, haha. A few planks on the boardwalk have rotten or gone, so watch out for the holes. Other than this, it’s a leisure walk.

Very soon we reach the Gomantong Cave (Sumid Hitam). We saw some rolled-up ropes at the workers longhouse. During harvest seasons for birds’ nest, the collectors will stay here and guard the cave.

Before I entered the cave, I already smelled the strong odor of amonia from bird and bat dropping. Fortunately I was well-prepared LOL.

The friendly dogs also followed me into the cave. The raised boardwalk in the cave keeps visitors from deep layer of guano and creepy cave bug, which I’ll show you later. The cave is really dark so you better bring a torch light with you. Though the cave is very dark, it’s a lively and busy world. The cave amplified the squawks of thousands of swiftlet and bat, and millions of bugs were crawling everywhere.

When my eyes got used to the dim environment, I started to see the vastness of Gomantong Cave. The cave is 90 Meters in height.

See the boardwalk in photo above? It looks so small. Now you know the scale of the cave.

The thick layer of guano also makes the boardwalk slippery. Watch your steps. Don’t look up either. Do you know your mouth will open when you look up? Then the bird poo will fall into your mouth, hahaha! Seriously, do wear a hat in the cave.

Bird’s Nest Soup

To most people, this cave is smelly, dirty and warm. To some, Gomantong Cave is a filthy gold mine due to its highly-priced bird nest. Since the 13th century, China traders have been buying birds’ nest from here, for making of bird nest soup, a delicacy for nobles and royal family. Some China emperors may had tasted the bird’s nest from Gomantong. A funny description by Chinese for an upstart is “he rinses his mouth with bird’s nest and shark fin soup”.

Even today, bird nest soup is an expensive cuisine. As China people are getting affluent, demand always exceeds supply. Someone even builds “swiftlet hotel” to farm for birds’ nest. However, edible bird nest from the caves is still considered as the best grade by consumers, as it contains minerals. Farmed bird’s nest is softer and disintegrates very fast after being cooked for a long time.

Whatever, research says that bird nest is just swiftlet saliva consists of water-soluble glyco-protein. Bird’s nest contains no secret ingredient to make you look younger. If women want to stay young, just eat healthy food and exercise regularly, a far more cheaper option. If a lady tells you that bird nest works for her, she is just showing off her wealth. If you still think saliva is good for you, I can sell you my saliva for half price, as it makes no difference.

Harvesting Edible Bird’s Nest

For conservation and sustainability of swiftlet population, the birds’ nest of Gomantong Caves is only harvested twice a year, i.e., Feb-Apr and Jul-Sep. You may see collectors at work if you visit during these months.

Black Nest of Black-Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus): more common but only priced at 20% of white nest, due to excessive impurity such as feather and plant materials in nest, labor-intensive to clean.

The swiftlet is not stupid. It builds its nest high on the ceiling of the cave. Swiftlet is an amazing bird. Not only people want to taste its saliva, it can fly so well that it can mate in flight. The echo-locating ability of these swiftlet allows them to navigate in cave and find their nests in total darkness. However, its sonar is not as accurate as bat hence not good enough to hunt for insects at night.

To harvest bird nests about 100 Meters above ground, the workers use the traditional setup in photo above.

Basically it’s a flimsy climbing structure supported by ropes, rattan ladders and bamboo poles. The workers risk their lives by climbing to the top, scratch the bird nest from the wall and put it in basket. Accident does happen sometimes, and in worst case, they fall and die in deep shit (guano).

The Ecology of Cave

Cave is a lightless world with unique ecology. Besides the noisy birds and bats, there are many ugly creatures call Gomantong their ideal home. Cave is the worst nightmare for Entomophobia (bug phobia).

The cave ecosystem is powered by shit guano of swiftlets and bats. After thousands years of accumulation, the guano is a few feet deep and becomes the all-you-can-eat food source of cave residents. FYI, this manure makes good fertilizer.

The cave floor, even the boardwalk, is carpeted by millions of cockroaches. They feed on the guano, and occasionally, the fallen fledgling. Sound bad but they help to clean up the mess, with dung beetles.

Because of the darkness, being colorful is pointless. Over time, some cockroaches lose their pigment and evolve to white color. Aren’t they cute?

The wall gets venomous cave centipedes (or Scutigera Centipede) everywhere. Their bites are as nasty as their look, and no other creatures dare to stay near them, so don’t lean on the cave wall. They hate light and fled into darkness, seconds after my torchlight beamed on them.

Pic: can you spot the crab? Many crabs live in guano pool here.

I hope I don’t scare you more, when I say racer snakes and giant centipedes also live in Gomantong Caves. Well, freaks just like to live together.

Bat Swarm

A least-known feature of Gomantong Cave is its bat swarm during dusk, when 2 millions bats fly out of the caves to start their day. Though the scale is not as spectacular as Mulu in Sarawak, the show is still quite a treat.

Just wait outside the cave around 5:30pm (they may not come out in rainy day). I saw wave after wave of bat swarms flying across the sky. If you want to see bat swarm up-close, the best spot is Sumid Putih Cave, where millions of bats flying just next to you, swarm after swarm.

I was not the only one waiting for the bats. Their predators also know this. When the bat swarm starts, a few Bat Hawks will prey on the bats. Other raptors such as Wallace’s Hawk Eagle and Crested Serpent Eagle also join the hunt. Many birdwatchers come to Gomantong for this action scene, after they see other birds such as kingfishers, leafbirds and flycatchers in forest nearby.

Gomantong Caves is a public park and very accessible. You only need to drive 1.5 hours from Sandakan to there on a paved road. The only problem is there is no bus going there. If you don’t want to hire a taxi or tour guide, you can rent a car and go there. Below is the location map:

How does it feel to stand in front of the majestic 120-Meter Langanan Waterfall in Poring? Langanan Waterfall is one of the tallest waterfalls in Sabah. On the way to this huge waterfall, you will pass by the smaller Kipungit Waterfall and a bat cave, and enjoy nearly 4 Kilometers of nature trail in rainforest. Below is a walk-through for you.

Above: this is the signage at park entrance and where you start your jungle trekking.
As you can see, your first stop Kipungit Waterfall is only 665 Meters away. Please register at the Ticket Counter before you go to Langanan Waterfall.

Kipungit Waterfall

Just follow the path and you will reach Kipungit Recreation Area after 20 minutes. It’s only a relaxing short walk and you are not really in a forest yet.

You would see some tourists playing with water near the Kipungit Waterfall. This is an area for picnic and swimming, and there are a toilet and camping ground nearby. As you are near the river and under the tree shade, the air is more cooling and refreshing.

Kipungit is the most accessible waterfall of Poring. I saw a few girls soaking their feet in calm water, giggling and pull their feet out of water. I tried to do the same and saw many tiny fishes nibble the skin of my feet. Kind of fun, haha.

With a height of only 10 or 12 Meters, Kipungit is nothing if compared to the 120-Meter gigantic Langanan Waterfall. Most tourists are happy with this little waterfall, but I decide to see the bigger Langanan 3.3 KM away.

One of the birds you would see here is White-crowned shama (see photo above), which is endemic to Borneo and considered as the best singer of rainforest. You could see a dozen of them around the park in early morning. The surrounding rainforest of Poring has over 300 bird species and great for bird watching. Personally I had seen Asian Fairy-bluebird, Yellow-rumped flowerpecker (endemic) and a few types of bulbuls in Poring. Prevost’s Squirrel is also common here.

You will see the signage to Langanan Waterfall near Kipungit Waterfall. At normal walking pace, most people can reach Langanan Waterfall in 2 hours. Before you go, you should have registered first at the Ticket Counter. For safety reason, the Park won’t allow you to go to Langanan Waterfall after 2pm. Do bring water (600-1,000ML), raincoat and snacks (e.g. chocolate, cereal food bar) with you. There are leeches on the jungle trail, so you better put on your anti-leech socks.

After this point, you enter the rainforest and the surrounding won’t be tourist-friendly. The jungle trail to Langanan is quite steep in the first half. Poring is about 400-500 Meters above sea level, and the forest is mainly lowland rainforest and mixed dipterocarp hill forest, characterized by tall and dense tropical trees (20 to 70 Meters high), warm and humid air, and abundant liana and strangler fig tree.

Bat Cave (Gua Kelawar)

After walking for 360 Meters, you will see Bat Cave next to the trail.

There is a broken warning notice sign reads “Visitors are not encouraging to enter the cave” (the grammar sounds funny).

Actually the cave is a deep crevice formed by a few huge boulders that stacked together. The dark and humid space in the cave becomes the ideal roosting spot for bats. You can smell guano from outside.

I tried to go deeper inside the cave. The rock surface is covered with green moss and very slippery, so I don’t recommend you to go in.

There are hundred of bats clinging on the rock wall. The smell of guano was getting stronger so I only stayed shortly.

To see what’s inside Bat Cave, you may watch the 1min-27sec video below:

Rainforest of Poring

I continued my jungle trekking after visiting Bat Cave. The first 1.5 KM of the trail is steepness with 20° to 40° of inclination, like climbing a hill. There is no boardwalk, hand-rail and shelter hut. Part of the trail turned muddy after rain.

You can see some bug along the forested trail, like the 9-inch long millipede above.

I played with a pill millipede that foraged on forest floor.

You can watch the 46-sec video below to see why it is called “Pill” Millipede:

Strangler fig tree is a common sight in Poring rainforest. The host tree is killed by parasitic strangler fig tree that wrap around it.

There is a small stream to cross. The water is shallow with some rocks above water, I can walk on them to cross the river without getting wet.

I saw many burrows on the exposed soil of the slopes. I think they are belong to hornet or wolf spider.

Animal dropping next to a water hole, probably belong to small mammal such as civet.

Shed skin of cicada, can be used as cooling agent for Chinese medicine.

Above: daddy longlegs (harvestmen spider) are everywhere.

Surprisingly, I only saw 3 leeches, far less than I expected. Probably the Park clear the trail twice a month, and leech dislikes ground surface that has no grass and foliage. The buzzing deer flies are more of a concern. They cut a small wound on your skin to suck your blood. The bite will become very itchy for next few days.

Langanan Waterfall

The milestones along the trail have worn out and I had no idea how far I walked. On the way, I saw 2 groups of high school students and 1 group of tourists returning from Langanan. I was dismayed by their answers “the waterfall is still very far away” when I checked my progress with them. 🙁

Anyway, I just kept walking and felt relief to see the signage above. Though I was only half-way there, the trail is not steep anymore from this point on and there are more descending trail.

After long hours of jungle trekking, I heard the thundering sound of Langanan Waterfall not far away. I speed up and finally I reached Langanan Waterfall!!!

This 120-Meter Langanan Waterfall is the tallest waterfall that I’ve ever seen. Before that, the tallest fall I saw was the 38-Meter Takob-Akob Waterfall in Maliau Basin. The huge water volume creates a micro-climate, it was windy there and I was shower by the droplets from splashing water high above.

It’s such a rewarding experience. This huge waterfall really worth my long hours of hiking.